


Holy Shovel Talk

by Threshie



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Castiel (Supernatural), Bisexual Dean Winchester, Castiel & Dean Winchester Friendship, Coffee Shops, Dean Deserves to be Happy, Dean Winchester In Love, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Nervous Dean Winchester, Original Character(s), Past Case Mentioned, Podfic Welcome, Protective Castiel, Sam Winchester mentioned, Shovel Talk, The Hunting Talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 19:04:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16247912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Threshie/pseuds/Threshie
Summary: Dean's convinced his new boyfriend can't handle the truth about him hunting monsters, and it's getting him down. Protective best friend Castiel decides to have a chat with the guy.





	Holy Shovel Talk

Castiel has never been the best at reading people, but after this many years he can tell when Dean’s happy, or sad, or anxious. He’s never seen all three at once before, though. More worrisome yet, his food-obsessed best friend has been picking at meals lately. He’s somehow both hyper and looking like he’s not sleeping well. Cas is really worried about him.

Another thing Cas has never been good at — something angels in general are not good at — is subtlety. 

“Dean, something’s wrong with you,” Cas says one day, climbing into the Impala’s passenger seat. The brothers are returning from a ghost hunt. Sam just got out and headed straight for the shower to wash ectoplasm out of his hair. Dean’s looking a little grimy, himself, but he closes his door again when Cas gets into the car.

“Wow, thanks, Cas. What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” The hunter says, half-annoyed and half-incredulous. Cas stares him down with that suspicious squint he can’t really help. He IS suspicious. Is Dean trying to laugh it off?

“I’m being serious, Dean,” he clarifies, in case that wasn’t obvious enough. “You’re behaving strangely, and I’m concerned about you.” That’s about as honest as he can be. Dean has always appreciated the direct approach Cas takes. Well, almost always.

Instead of the flippant joke Castiel expects, Dean glances nervously out the driver side window in case Sam’s coming back. He’s not; with the amount of goo in his hair, he’ll probably be in the shower at least another half hour.

“Cas, do you remember Toshi? The guy from the vampire case last month, the one we cured?”

Cas squints at him again. He does remember Toshi. He remembers him smiling at Dean an awful lot. 

“Yes,” he says seriously. “Is he bothering you?”

Dean chuckles nervously at that.

“No, Cas, he’s, uh, he’s dating me.”

Oh.

Castiel blinks and tilts his head, processing this. He really isn’t great at this reading people thing.

“So you have a boyfriend,” he concludes after a moment.

“Shh!” Dean glances around to be sure Sam’s out of earshot again. Turning back to Cas, he smiles sheepishly. “Yeah, he’s…” Is he BLUSHING? “He’s really great, Cas.”

The angel nods solemnly, still staring at him.

“And that’s why you’re agitated and not eating and losing sleep?” He asks plainly. The words and the evidence aren’t adding up, here.

Dean rubs the back of his neck with one hand, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden.

“Sam said the same things. Is it that obvious?”

“Obvious enough I was concerned enough to talk to you,” Cas points out, getting impatient. “Dean, what’s going on with him? Is there something supernatural that you aren’t mentioning?”

Dean laughs at that, sheepish again. 

“No…no, Cas, he’s a total civvie about monsters and hunting and all that jazz. That’s the problem, actually. I can’t keep lying to him.” 

“He was bitten by a vampire already,” Cas points out. “Do you think he wouldn’t believe the rest of it exists?”

“Sam told him that was some crazy guy who bit him,” Dean explains, sighing. “And that the weird heightened senses and bloodlust stuff were some bad trip from strong drugs to make sure the bite didn’t get infected. He thinks I was just another bystander there, and he makes Twilight jokes, Cas — he has no clue real vampires are a thing.”

“Have you tried to tell him the truth?” This seems simple enough to Castiel. There are only a few options - lie or tell the truth.

Dean avoids his eyes. 

“You haven’t,” Cas interprets. “Why not, Dean?”

“Because he’ll flip out!” Dean folds his arms on Baby’s steering wheel, resting his forehead against them. “He can’t even watch horror movies, he’s a chick flick and rom-com kind of dude, okay? Said Ghostbusters gave him nightmares for weeks.”

“According to the internet, that movie gives many children nightmares,” Cas says, trying to be helpful.

“He saw it in college.”

“Oh.”

Dean looks so dejected leaned on the steering wheel that Cas reaches over and places a hand on his back, patting it.

“I’m sorry, Dean, I have no easy solution. A relationship built around lies, though, isn’t going to end well.”

“Gee, thanks, Cas, that makes me feel better,” Dean mumbles, sighing. Cas pats his back again sympathetically. It isn’t a happy truth, but it IS the truth. Castiel isn’t so sure that Toshi wouldn’t be able to handle the truth; Dean seems hesitant to even try it. Either he must actually be serious about the man, or Toshi must be a complete coward.

And it seems unlike Dean to fall in love with a coward. 

As Dean’s best friend, Cas feels protective of him, and a plan to solve this dilemma is forming in his head. If Toshi can’t accept the REAL Dean, the one who hunts monsters and saved Toshi’s own life last month, than Toshi doesn’t deserve him anyway.

It’s time for Dean’s best friend to have a little chat with Dean’s boyfriend.  


* * *

  
Toshi’s not sure what he’s doing here, but it feels weird and sneaky. What else can he do, though? Out of the blue, texts started coming in from an unfamiliar number this morning. Usually he’d ignore that kind of thing as a wrong number situation, but the sender addressed them to Toshi and said his name is Castiel, and that name’s so weird that it’s stuck with him.

Castiel is Dean’s best friend. Dreamy Dean, the hunky guy with the cherried out muscle car, the best thing that’s ever happened to Toshi, frankly. He met Dean last month after that crazy homeless guy bit him on the shoulder. Dean stayed with him and called 911, and the towering EMT who showed up gave him something for the bite that sent Toshi on a real bad trip. 

Dean was there through that, talked to him, when he didn’t even have to stay after the medic dude showed up. Toshi was out of it, really out of it, and he’s pretty sure he babbled some stuff about his abusive-as-hell homophobic mother disowning him at sixteen. Or ex-mother, as he calls her now. Dean even stuck around after that stuff, which at the time seemed pretty big of him. Toshi didn’t know Dean was bisexual until he cruised into town a week later to check up on how the bite was healing, and they talked in a little diner over pie and coffee, and Dean said his dad was pretty narrow-minded, too.

It’s been a whirlwind since then. Dean looks like way more of a bad boy than he really is; he’s super soft with animals, like the dogs he stops to pet on the street, and he was even sweeter with the poor missing kid they led to the service desk in the grocery store that one time. Toshi’s got a bad feeling Dean had a rough childhood, himself, the way he was so kind and so patient with that kid. Like he understands exactly how it feels to be alone and scared.

It’s only been a month, and Toshi would do almost anything for Dean. The guy’s beautiful and kind, and he doesn’t seem to give himself much credit about either of those things.

So Toshi’s here to meet Castiel, because that’s what the guy asked him to do. For Dean. And he’s a nervous wreck.

“Hello, Toshi.” The low, slightly gravelly voice makes him jump, instinctively hugging his iced coffee so close the cup dents in the middle. He’s afraid to turn around. Castiel sounds scary. 

For Dean, he tells himself, and slowly turns to face the guy.

And holy shit, he’s in trouble if Dean’s ever considered dating his best friend. Castiel’s tall, he’s got a jawline that looks like it’s been chiseled out of marble, and his eyes are the bluest damned things Toshi has ever seen. On top of that, he’s got tousled dark hair, perfect arching brows, and he’s wearing a fucking trench coat like some kind of runway model. He even smells good. Him and Dean side by side would probably cause heart palpitations. 

“Castiel?” Toshi manages to muster a tiny, nervous smile, holding out his hand. “H-hey, hi, hi there. Um, I’m Toshi. I mean, you know that, because you just said that, so…” And because he just texted you to meet here, Toshi. WOW, way to put his foot straight into his mouth. Toshi can’t help it, the guy’s like four inches taller than him and his beautiful blue eyes are intimidating. 

Castiel shakes his hand with the intent look of somebody making a contractually binding business deal. 

Toshi can’t help staring as the blue-eyed guy takes a seat beside him. He looks like some kind of romance novel character, leaned at the bar in his tan trench coat with his hair all ruffled and brows all frowny. God damn it.

“We need to talk about Dean.” He’s direct, too. Dean mentioned that, though. When he talks about Castiel, he uses the nickname Cas and gets this fond soft look in his green eyes that makes Toshi melt. He clearly cares about Castiel a lot, like he’s family. Based on Dean’s descriptions, though, Cas is a nerdy socially awkward guy with loves bees. And hugs. He forgot to mention “devastatingly handsome” in that list of traits.

“I kind of thought so,” Toshi replies, popping the dent out of the side of his coffee cup. He takes a small sip, trying to chill out. Cas is almost as gorgeous as Dean, but if Dean was interested, they’d already be dating, right? And instead Dean’s dating Toshi, for some stupid reason. He doesn’t get it, but he’s crazy about Dean, so he’ll take it for what it is. 

“Do you believe in angels?” The question catches him off-guard, but not as much as the dead serious stare that comes along with it. Castiel, Toshi speculates, must be hella Catholic or something.

“Uhhhh…” Toshi smiles awkwardly and slowly shakes his head. “Sorry, man. Respect if you do, but I just don’t believe in any of that stuff. You’ve probably already heard that from Dean, I know he’s an atheist.” Oh shit, did CAS know Dean’s an atheist? Ohshitohshitohshit did he just ruin a friendship? Holy hell. He never should’ve gotten out of bed this morning, texts or no texts…

Castiel looks at him thoughtfully, standing up. 

“If you care about Dean, follow me. We can’t talk about it here.” 

Toshi glances around the little coffee and juice bar and then to the door. All the alarm bells are ringing right now. He doesn’t know this guy, he seems really intense and serious, and he’s VERY interested in Dean’s love life. On the other hand, it’s Castiel, and Dean’s said more than once he trusts Castiel with his life. That he’s a really good guy, that he likes bees, and kittens, and bees. (Bees get mentioned a lot.)

“Fine, but if you turn out to be some slasher I’m gonna be pissed,” Toshi warns, taking his coffee and following the tails of the trench coat out the door. 

That was supposed to be a joke, but Castiel didn’t even crack a smile. Gulp.

They don’t go far — it’s a tiny town, and the coffee bar’s right next to a park with some trees. Toshi’s mentally going over the steps to using the taser in the pocket of his carpenter jeans when Castiel leads them straight into the cover of the trees. 

Really? REALLY? Toshi doesn’t watch horror movies, but from what he’s heard, this is how joggers always get murdered. Good thing he likes tennis better.

Cue anxious nervous internal laughter. 

“So…what do you mean ‘if I care about Dean’?” He speaks up uneasily, as they round a turn that hides the last glimpse of the world outside. Toshi lingers near the path, ready to bolt for it if Castiel pulls a knife on him or something.

The tall man turns blue eyes on him solemnly, holding up a hand. 

“Stay there.” 

Great, now Toshi’s nervous about somebody creeping up behind him. He peeks quickly over his shoulder. Castiel shoots him this squinty little questioning look at that, and okay, that makes him a sliver less intimidating. Just a sliver, though.

Hugging his coffee cup like a security blanket, Toshi just kind of nods. 

“Oookay, whatever you’re planning, just do it. You’re starting to freak me out,” he admits. 

“I will,” Castiel says evenly, “But first I want to be clear with you, Toshi. Dean is my best friend.”

Toshi nods again, blinking.

“Yeah, I respect that. The way he talks about you, you’re really important to him.”

For a split second, there’s this soft look in Castiel’s eyes. It’s just like Dean’s look when he talks about the guy. Aww, they’re cute besties. Toshi feels a little outgunned again, but he’s also happy for Dean.

“He’s my brother,” Castiel continues, interrupting his thoughts. Toshi shrugs.

“Um, okay.” 

“And I’m not here to cause you any harm, but there are things you need to know about him, and about me.” 

Okay, sure — wait, what? 

Before Toshi can ask what the hell that means, his skin’s tingling like the air’s electrified. HOLY — Castiel’s eyes are glowing, his whole body shining brightly with white light like it’s barely containing it. Toshi’s sure his eyes are like saucers. What in the ever-loving FUCK— 

“Wh-what are you?” He stutters, agape. The glowing whatever-it-is that brought him out here says nothing, but there’s movement behind it. Toshi’s gaze flicks rapidly between it and THEM — wings, huge black shadowy WINGS. 

“I’m an angel of the Lord, Toshi.” 

“Okay, I take it back, I do believe in angels! Holy shit, dude! Are you gonna kill me?” Well, it’s a reasonable question.

In a split second, the light all shwoops back into nothingness, and Castiel the handsome blue-eyed ACTUAL FUCKING ANGEL is standing there in his trench coat like it never even happened. 

“I specifically said that I WASN’T going to harm you,” Castiel grumbles, exasperated. Toshi can’t stop staring at him now.

“Yeah, well excuse me if I don’t believe you right now! What the hell was that about?” Jesus, he said something about him AND Dean that Toshi doesn’t know. “Wait, is DEAN an angel too?”

“No,” Castiel says, stepping over toward him again. Toshi hugs his coffee and resists the impulse to take a step backward. Cas said he isn’t here to hurt him, and he’s an angel, angels are supposed to be good. He’d give Michael Landon nightmares, though. 

Castiel starts back the way they came, and Toshi falls into step beside him, staring at him still.

“S-s-so what is he, then?” In his head, he’s having a bit of a crisis. If angels are real, so are demons, and if demons are real there’s a devil, and a hell, and his life choices haven’t exactly paved a road that leads to the pearly gates. Is being gay a sin? Is creationism an actual thing…?

Castiel turns to him and frowns.

“Human, like you,” he says, as if that should be perfectly obvious. “But angels aren’t the only supernatural beings to exist, Toshi. There are many violent ones. Werewolves. Demons. Vampires.” 

“Werewolves?” Toshi can’t help it — glowy eyes or not, saying werewolves are real sounds just plain fake. 

“Yes,” Castiel says grimly. “I’m telling you about them because they’re Dean’s job. He hunts them.”

“Dean said he’s a mechanic,” Toshi replies dubiously. He’d write all of this off as Dean’s buddy having a few screws loose, except for the fucking light show and literal wings he just witnessed. “Wh-what’s an angel doing being besties with Dean, anyway? Even Dean the monster hunter, not Dean the mechanic?” He asks plaintively. What the hell is he supposed to ask, here? Why is Castiel giving him this talk?

He’s talking to an ANGEL, an actual angel…

“I raised him from Perdition to stop the apocalypse,” Castiel deadpans, absolutely serious. “Then he stabbed me and we become friends. It’s a long story. Do you love Dean, Toshi?”

Perdition—apocalypse what now?

Toshi’s wide-eyed again, and squeezing his poor abused coffee cup. He’d better focus on the part he understands for now, which is ‘love’. Jesus, it’s a little early for the L-word, especially if there’s this much he doesn’t know yet. He is crazy about Dean, though — and holy shit, if monsters exist and Dean hunts them he’s BRAVE on top of stunning and sweet… 

“I-I think I DO,” he says, just realizing it himself.

“If you’re sure, then tell him,” Castiel orders. “And if not, tell him. Be certain of what you say, though, because if you break his heart, I will find you and bury you. Understood?” 

Gulp.

“P-perfectly.”  


* * *

  
Dean can do this. He’s been thinking and thinking about what Cas said last week about Toshi and telling him the truth, and Cas is right. Sooner or later, Toshi’ll figure it out. Hell, as soon as Toshi sees Sam, who was playing the EMT that night they cured him, Toshi will find out. And Dean would rather try to explain than have his boyfriend think he’s okay with lying to him forever.

He’s on his way to meet Toshi now. “On his way” is technically inaccurate, since Baby’s been parked for the past fifteen minutes, but Dean’s procrastinating going into the cafe. He’s pretty sure this’ll end in a breakup. The last time he tried to tell somebody he was involved with about the hunting life, it was Cassie, and she thought he was trying to dump her and ditched him first. 

Like any sane person would. The truth DOES sound nuts.

Dean can see Toshi sitting at a table in the corner through the window. He’s holding onto a mug of coffee, his hair all cute and messy the way Dean likes, and he’s in a long-sleeved blue henley that looks cuddly. He looks really nervous, though. Dean told him they needed to talk, and even with the cute emojis in the text, that’s code-speak for “break up talk.” 

Making him wait any more isn’t gonna help. Dean shoves the automatic plans for a cover story out of his mind and gets out of the car. He doesn’t need a cover story, because he’s going to tell the damned truth. Even if it scares Toshi off. Even if it hurts.

Even if the truth sucks. 

The waitress points him at the right table, and Dean smiles and thanks her. No need to be rude just because he’s bracing himself for this conversation.

Toshi looks up when he approaches the table, big brown eyes curious and scared and excited all at once.

“Dean,” he says nervously, hopping up to hug him. Dean can feel the heartbeat racing against his own, and pats his back, kisses his cheek. He’ll miss this. He doesn’t WANT to break up. He wishes the truth wasn’t so lousy.

“Hi, sorry I’m late,” he murmurs, as they both take a seat. “So, uh, about what I wanted to talk about—”

“Can I get you something to drink?” The waitress interrupts, and Dean shoots her a slightly miserable smile.

“Coffee, thanks.” She goes away, and he immediately turns back to Toshi — only to find Toshi reaching to grab his hand.

“Dean, I-I have to say something first, okay?”

Well, shit. Dean might get dumped before he can even say the truth. Maybe Toshi can see his cover story’s bullshit. Maybe “civilian Dean” the sanitized cover story persona is boring as hell. 

“Go ahead, shoot,” he tells his boyfriend, smiling sadly. “Mine can wait a few.”

Toshi looks down into his mug of coffee and blushes, and damn he’s adorable when he does that. Dean’s going to miss him so damn much.

Toshi’s holding onto his hand pretty tight.

“Dean, you’re wonderful, okay? Amazing. I-I know it’s way too fast, but I have to tell you now that I know.” Dean freezes, heart thunking in his chest. Tell him…what?

Toshi places his other hand over Dean’s, looking up from them to meet the hunter’s eyes.

“I love you,” he whispers, at once hopeful and scared. “Dean, I love you.”

Oh.

Dean wants to be happy — he is, he is happy — but the timing couldn’t be worse. He opens his mouth to reply, and the waitress swoops in with a mug of coffee, placing it in front of him.

“Ready to order, or do you fellas need a few minutes?” Toshi just stares up at her, heart clearly in his throat, and Dean feels like the biggest asshole ever. He’s about to say something insane right after a love confession. This’s going to be even worse than Cassie, but the only other option is to keep lying, and he just can’t anymore. Not again.

Toshi freaking loves him — him, not his job, not the things he’s done. Hopefully not his fake mechanic job…

“Give us a few,” he tells the waitress softly. She shrugs and leaves them be.

“I fucked it up, didn’t I?” Toshi looks like he might cry. “I-it’s way too soon…right?” 

“Hey, no no no.” Dean lifts his hands and kisses each of them, looking him in the eyes. “Toshi, I’m crazy about you. Crazy. Think about you every single day.” He smiles sadly, looking down at their hands. “But what I’ve got to say, it’s gonna sound like the bad side of crazy, and I don’t wanna hurt you, man.”

This feels terrible. He’s supposed to say ‘I love you’ back, not start the crazy talk about wendigos and vampires and demons spat up from Hell. Toshi’s either going to think Dean’s crazy or worse, he’ll believe him and have a panic attack. 

Toshi just takes a deep breath, though, looking at their hands.

“You can tell me. How crazy could it be?”

Dean’s pretty sure his smile is more of a cringe. Toshi’s never heard crazy talk like the crazy talk Dean’s about to talk.

“It’s not what you think,” he says. “It’s about my job. Sweetheart, I’m not a mechanic.”

And he’s right, Toshi saw right through his bullshit cover story, too. He doesn’t look surprised at all.

Dean lets go of his hands, sitting back and running his fingers through his hair.

“I’m sorry… This’s gonna sound insane, and I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me,” he begins, “But I’m gonna tell it like it is.” Deep breath. “Monsters are real. They’re out there, and I hunt them and save people from them. That’s me, that’s the REAL me.”

It feels like a relief to get it off of his chest, even though there’s no way Toshi is gonna believe it. When Dean looks at him, though, his boyfriend (are they still boyfriends?) just looks a little unnerved.

“Like…the boogeyman?” Toshi asks, his voice a little higher than before. Dean reaches for his hand again, smiling nervously. Well, he hasn’t bolted yet or accused Dean of insulting him.

“Haven’t met him yet,” he joked. “But things like werewolves, vampires, ghosts, demons…yeah. All real. I know that sounds crazy, but—”

“Not that crazy,” Toshi says quickly, looking at him with wide eyes. Dean’s confused; instead of anger or disbelief, his boyfriend looks AMAZED.

“You believe me?” Dean asks, blinking.

Toshi glances around them quickly, like somebody might be listening in.

“I’ve seen some pretty weird things myself, Dean,” he whispers, turning back to the hunter. “And if all those things are real, and you FIGHT them, that makes you a total badass.”

“Just…y’know, it’s the family business,” Dean replies, trying not to sound as flustered as he is. Toshi’s adorable, and he thinks Dean’s a BADASS. 

Toshi grins and squeezes his hand. 

“Right, you’ve gotta introduce me to this little brother you keep talking about. Does he hunt monsters too?”

Oh, right. Vampire case, Sam the EMT, awkward awkward explanations. As much as Dean is NOT looking forward to that, if Toshi wants to meet his family then he’s not expecting them to break up anytime soon. Even after hearing about the hunting thing. 

Thank Chuck.

“Yeah, I’ll introduce you next time,” he promises, “Today I want you all to myself.” He looks down at his coffee and clears his throat, adding awkwardly, “I owe you a do-over, a date that’s not about my job.”

They both chuckle a little at that, the tension broken. Dean’s not sure how, but this wasn’t a disaster after all. He’s still got a boyfriend. He’s got a boyfriend who loves him.

“Dean, I’ve got one question about the hunting thing.”

Dean looks up quickly, ready to answer any awkward or weird question. 

“Yeah?”

Toshi looks a tiny bit nervous again.

“Have you ever met an angel?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading my fic! The idea for this popped into my head, and I had to write it. Comments and kudos always appreciated!


End file.
